Montevideo (Uruguay); Manila/Sagada (Philippines); Johannesburg (South Africa); Berlin (Germany)
Radio in Germany was celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. To mark the occasion, “Listening to the World – 100 Years of Radio” has been launched as a cooperative project between the Goethe-Institut, the “Experimental Radio” professorship at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW.
In Germany, Berliner Funk Stunde A.G. began regular broadcasting for the first time on 29 October 1923. The first German radio play followed nearly a year later. This dual anniversary – 100 years of radio and 100 years of radio art – is a good reason to research the historical connection between radio and globalization and explore international and in some cases previously unknown archives and histories of radio broadcasting.
Led by the “Experimental Radio” professorship at Bauhaus Universität Weimar and local curators from Buenos Aires, Manila and Harare, artists, experts and listeners explored the significance of radio in South America, South Asia and Southern Africa and searched for global connections. The project emphasized listening as an alternative way of viewing the world. Radio gives rise to a sense of identity, strengthens democracy and is used for propaganda and espionage. The internet has changed radio and spawned new audio formats such as podcasts. And this is influencing our listening habits in new ways.
This project offered not only an opportunity to pay tribute to the history of radio, but also invited people to explore the fascinating art of listening in different regions of the world, to put them into context and thus gain a new understanding of the world through the viewpoint of radio.
The Bauhaus.listening.workshops took place in three exemplary locations around the world: In Montevideo (March 2023), in Manila/Sagada (August 2023) and in Johannesburg (March 2024). The “Experimental Radio” professorship presents the results of the workshops and research on a new digital knowledge platform, the “Transcultural Listening Map”, which in turn, together with the events at HKW, provides the source material for a six-part series in the radio play podcast of Deutschlandfunk Kultur. These have been available on the radio play and feature website since 24 November 2024!
On 21 and 22 October 2023, an event was held at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) to mark the 100th anniversary of radio. Together with all partners and curators, the Goethe-Institut presented an artistic and discursive programme with performances, lectures, workshops, installations, talks, music and screenings around the project Listening to the World – 100 Years of Radio. The focus was on the South American and South Asian region.
The event was accompanied by a diverse radio programme that was broadcasted live from HKW on 21 and 22 October via Bauhaus.FM (online and UKW 106.6 MHz) and Refuge Worldwide.
On October 19th 2024, from 12:00 to 00:00, a second event with the title Listening to the World – 100 Years of Radio Art took place at HKW in Berlin. The programme presented perspectives and practices from Southern Africa and other geographically, politically, and sonically related areas. In the process of studying the role of radio broadcasting in Southern Africa one is invited to ask existential questions, such as: What can radio broadcasting provide today? How can the medium be used to intervene artistically? And in which areas and from which perspective? The programmes content was shaped by the Bauhaus.Listening.Workshop#3, which took place in Johannesburg in March 2024. Conceived by Nathalie Singer and co-curated by Masimba Hwati.
